SF 49ers fans pumped up for playoff game

FANS

Updated 11:53 pm, Saturday, January 12, 2013

Bill Jennings of Sonora offers cheese to fellow fans in the parking lot at Candlestick Park before the game between the 49ers and Green Bay Packers.

Bill Jennings of Sonora offers cheese to fellow fans in the parking lot at Candlestick Park before the game between the 49ers and Green Bay Packers.

Photo: Stephen Lam, Special To The Chronicle

SF 49ers fans pumped up for playoff game

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There were few conversations in San Francisco on Saturday that didn't end in the hearty battle cry of "Go, Niners!"

The tribe was out in full force hours before the playoff game against the Green Bay Packers, a tide of red and gold making its way south through the city for the matchup that would determine the fate of the season for their beloved San Francisco 49ers.

The parking lots at Candlestick Park were a block of red before game time, the smoke from tailgaters' barbecues rising to warm the bite of the wind and fans fortifying themselves with booze.

Many fans spent the hours before the game discussing how young Colin Kaepernick would fare as quarterback in his first playoff game.

Garza said he thought this game would be a chance for Kaepernick to show he was "a true all-star," while Jim Ludwig, 40, of Modesto said he just hoped he would do better than former starter Alex Smith.

Bair said he and Ludwig were spending some time before the game soaking in the Candlestick atmosphere, especially with the team slated to head to its new stadium in Santa Clara for the 2014 season.

"We're just enjoying the Stick now," he said. "How many more playoff games you going to have here at the Stick, after all these years?"

Among the sea of 49er red was a generous sprinkling of the green-and-gold of Packers fans. They greeted each other with enthusiastic shouts of "Beat the Niners!" and shared high-fives and beers.

The overall mood in the park was cheerful and good-natured. Police did not release numbers of arrests or fights broken up before the game, but few incidents were reported.

Fans on both sides playfully ragged on each other. Nick Delorio, 28, of South San Francisco carried around a large homemade cheese grater fashioned out of foil and pretended to shred laughing Packers fans.

"It's what we're doing to the cheeseheads tonight," he said.

April Morris, 37, from the Tulare County town of Farmersville, proudly wore her cheesehead and Packers-green jacket into the park, taking the heckling with a smile.

"Right when we got on the Bay Bridge, everyone started honking at us," she said with a laugh.

Packers fan Carol Torrejon, 29, stood out in her green and gold among her three red-and-gold-clad siblings. She said she started supporting the Packers more than a decade ago to give her brothers a hard time, and now she is a true fan.

Her two brothers and half-sister were staying with her Saturday night, and Torrejon said she and her brother Anthony, 27, had a bet on the outcome of the game - if the Niners win, he gets the bed and she has to sleep on the floor, and vice versa for a Packers win.

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